Icon by @ThatSpookyAgent. Call me Tir or Julian. 37. He/They. Queer. Twitter: @tirlaeyn. ao3: tirlaeyn. 18+ Only. Star Trek. The X-Files. Sandman. IwtV. OMFD. Definitionless in this Strict Atmosphere.
My thoughts on the Julian and Miles friendship: Generally, I like it.
BUT… they take it too far by the end of the show. By season 7, Miles is way too ride-or-die for Julian. The man has a family, but if Julian wants to do something dangerous, Miles goes with it without a moment of hesitation or thought.
In “Image in the Sand/ Shadows and Symbols”, Miles makes it clear he’s not interested in joining Worf’s avenging Jadzia quest. But when Julian says he’s going to do it, Miles instantly replies, “Then I’m going with you.”
This is a very dangerous optional mission, and Miles volunteers ONLY because Julian is.
No one asked him to go.
He has no personal emotional stake in it. Shouldn’t he be trying to avoid optional dangerous missions? You know, for the sake of his wife and young kids?
In “Extreme Measures”, Miles decides to go into Sloan’s mind with Julian, even though he would be better served staying out and watching over Julian with the equipment, so he can wake Julian up before he can get stuck in there and die with Sloan. He goes in with the only way out being Julian’s guess that he can wake them up himself.
Not only does he join Julian, but he doesn’t tell anyone else what they’re doing. If he hadn’t missed fixing Ezri’s shower that morning, no one would’ve found them for a long while. Again, zero thought into protecting himself for the sake of his family.
Then there’s that scene that grinds the story to a halt, in a story that is based on an urgent time limit. “I should’ve left a note for Keiko about what we were doing.” Really? Hell of a time to think about them now. “I love my wife…” “But you like me more.” Ugh, it does everyone a disservice. (Both Sid and Colm didn’t like it, either).
One minor example from Season 6 “Sacrifice of Angels.” What’s the first thing we see Miles talk about when they take back the station? Playing a battle game with Julian. Shouldn’t he first want to, you know, call his family to tell them he’s alive and they can reunite soon? (Maybe you can say he called them on the Defiant, but that isn’t how its presented).
At times, for a supposed devoted family man, he sure does seem to care more about Julian than his family. It just goes too far by the end.
A really important Julian Bashir Moment™️ is in The Visitor where future Julian is widely known for notshuttingupabout how proud he is of his kids’ science projects.
Every time Odo gets even the slightest papercut, Bashir just goes “well Odo my boy, in my professional opinion…. what the fuck? Hit the bucket and call me in the morning, I guess. or don’t; whomst among us can truly claim to know what medical advice to give a sentient lump of play-dough?” and then he walks out of the room.
why is it so extremely 😳 when julian is talking to someone he doesn’t like/a villain/etc and distorts his usual Soft into something vaguely terrifying
god I am OBSESSED with this. And his voice in general. Maybe I’m being overly dramatic about just a Thing Humans Do which is I suppose somewhat true but I feel like Julian (Sid?) modulates his voice constantly depending on the situation and who he’s talking to and it’s very noticeable. The interesting thing is that a couple of comments Sid has made lead me to suspect that he very much knew and did it very deliberately which is just *chef’s kiss* perfect. Acting Choices. He’s got the thing he does with his voice when he’s trying to comfort people that’s like the most reassuring sound you’ve ever heard and the other thing he does with his voice which makes him absolutely terrifying somehow. And he almost never raises his voice at ANYONE except like Garak once and a corrupt admiral once and somehow those aren’t nearly Julian at his scariest. Julian at his scariest is just as soft-spoken as usual but he somehow also sounds like he’s plotting a murder
so the thing i find fascinating about the parmakshir dynamic is the ONLY thing we have canonically about dr. parmak is
male doctor (unusual on cardassia)
garak interrogated him and he was sent to a prison camp as a result
i absolutely get why andy snagged him for ASIT and why una ran with it even further, because there is obviously a lot to work with there, in the garmak dynamic alone. BUT the postcanon parmakshir implications are great too.
no matter how you hc the garmak relationship prior to parmak being imprisoned, i think there is a reason tain brings him up specifically, and it’s not just that garak supposedly broke him by just staring silently. tain is calculated and he knows garak’s pain points. he mentions parmak, mentions he’s been released, jokes about visiting him. there is SOMETHING there, whether it was just that garak had a crush, or something deeper.
if parmak and garak become friends post-canon (a dynamic i am SUPER into), you have this sort of…garak feels like he owes parmak more than he could ever possibly repay him. what kind of dynamic does that lead to, amongst the three of them? there’s a lot of very wholesome permutations in fic but i want to see more where it’s complicated and maybe a bit tragic.
to further elaborate i specifically REALLY like the idea that parmak and garak are friends, and that he’s explicitly forgiven him. why? because it’s terrifying for garak.
and i say that as someone who completely gets why parmak would. as someone who forgives but never forgets, i COMPLETELY GET IT. garak is very charismatic and he seems to be genuinely trying to redeem himself. but you know what’s extra funny?
he doesn’t actually WANT parmak to forgive him. remember how hard he tries to get julian to hate him in the wire before he finally settles for forgiveness instead? he’d rather that from parmak too. but parmak’s not going to give him that. parmak’s going to forgive him, and parmak’s going to be his friend. parmak’s going to be a close friend! parmak is going to be around him! all! the! time! parmak is so very nice and trustworthy. parmak is just as charismatic as garak is, if not more so. parmak is friend shaped!!!
parmak could kill garak in his sleep and he’d never see it coming!
if you don’t think that is an extremely funny dynamic between a severely paranoid ex-interrogator and one of his victims, idk what to tell you. i love it
